Video 6:14
African footballers kicking goals

Louisa Rebgetz
Fri Sep 14 21:21:00 EST 2012

In the Northern Territory a group of African boys have formed their very own Aussie Rules team to help get involved in the local community. Playing football is also working to ease tensions between African refugees and Indigenous students in some Darwin schools.

Transcript

LOUISA REBGETZ, PRESENTER: It can be a hard struggle for refugees - moving to Australia and feeling accepted by the wider community. In the Northern Territory, a group of African boys have formed their very own Aussie Rules team to help get involved in the local community. Playing football is also working to ease tensions between African and Indigenous students in some Darwin schools. It's not just the boys who are kicking goals - the girls have also started their own team.

LOUISA REBGETZ: On a football oval in Darwin a group of keen young players is learning the ropes. This team is made up of African refugees and it's providing more for these young boys than just sporting fun.

ADAM MOEDT, AFL NT: They are really proud of the jerseys and their flags being represented and it really shows that the boys are here in Darwin and they are here you know playing, I guess, our native sport and they are here to give it a crack if everyone else will give them a go as well.

LOUISA REBGETZ: The AFL's Adam Moedt is head of multicultural projects in the Northern Territory. Today he is coaching the African academy team in their game against St John's College.

ADAM MOEDT, AFL NT: The boys really initiated the team themselves and so the boys initially went to the school and said is there a space or something we can have as our own so we put it back on the boys and said do you reckon you can get a team together and we'll do a lot more than just play football.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Nightcliff Middle School student Patrick Taban is one of many refugees living in Darwin. The 14-year-old fell in love with Aussie rules after his neighbour asked him for a kick.

PATRICK TABAN: Yeah, first time couldn't kick a ball because the only ball I used to kick was a soccer ball but then funny shaped oval ball, yeah.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Now Patrick Taban has been named in the Northern Territory Under-15 representative team - the first African-born player to do so.

ADAM MOEDT, AFL NT: He is very quick. He jumps extremely high. He reads the play really well, and sort of once he starts running no one can really catch him. He brings a skill set that's, I guess, not very common up in the Top End in that someone that is as tall as he is, at the age that he is and really fills that key-position role.

MAJAK DAW, AFL PLAYER: It's a pretty exciting prospect - me sitting back here at North Melbourne and just thinking you know there'll be other kids like me joining me hopefully in the future. I guess the thing that stands out the most is the athleticism and as soon as they pick up football.

LOUISA REBGETZ: In 2009, Majak Daw made international news when he became the first African- born player to be drafted into the AFL. The North Melbourne recruit has a similar story to many of the young footballers now playing in Darwin. He and his family fled civil war in Sudan when he was nine years old - arriving in Australia three years later. Majak Daw says football played a huge role in being accepted into the local community.

MAJAK DAW, AFL PLAYER: When I first come to Australia you know I had a few struggles trying to learn English as well as trying to fit into the community and I saw AFL as a vehicle to me to integrate into the community.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Majak Daw is a role model for young Patrick Taban. He met the rising Kangaroos star in Melbourne earlier this year.

PATRICK TABAN: It was a once in a lifetime chance to meet someone like that, yeah. We went down to Melbourne, Victoria, coach said Majak Daw is here - he is ready to meet us. We were like awe yeah, I was pumped.

LOUISA REBGETZ: A few years ago gang violence between African and Indigenous students prompted Sanderson Middle School in Darwin's northern suburbs to implement a suite of initiatives to build relationships between the two groups.

THIONG KWAI: There was trouble with Indigenous boys and us African boys. It went on for several years, but yeah now everything is good. Now we have a sport like this to play, both teams.

ADAM MOEDT, AFL NT: You know it got to the point where kids were really getting hurt. It has helped ease the tension just a little bit. It is obviously only in its baby steps.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Refugee advocates say school yard bullying is a universal problem, but is exacerbated by economic disadvantage.

ALI NUR, MELALEUCA REFUGEE CENTRE: When you have got low socio-economic groups who actually don't have the resources to access divisional things - going to the movies, not having transport, playing footy, whatever it is quite often the potential of conflict is always there.

CAROLINE JACKSON: He is really good. He teaches us a lot - he is a really good coach.

LOUISA REBGETZ: What do you like about playing football?

CAROLINE JACKSON: Well I guess the drama. Well sometimes it is intimidating, but most of the time it isn't so it's really good.

LOUISA REBGETZ: For these teenagers the football field is a place for learning about more than just sport.

ADAM MOEDT, AFL NT: Once you have seen terrible things happen in front of you, you know stealing something isn't the worst thing that you can do in the world or giving away a free kick or something like that isn't the worst thing, so sport plays a really important role in teaching rules, teaching boundaries and teaching general expectations.

LOUISA REBGETZ: And one of these players might just be the AFL's next rising star.